David Axelbank Flora Series, Artichoke flower
About David
David Axelbank was born in Shrewsbury, UK in 1972. He was raised in the Soviet Union, Israel, England and America. He attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase earning a Bachelor of Fine Art with a concentration in Photography and Printmaking, in 1994.
From 1993, Axelbank worked at Magnum Photos New York, as assistant to the Bureau Chief; historical researcher for Susan Meiselas’s Kurdistan book; and then full-time in the Editorial Department. He moved to San Francisco in 1996 to pursue freelance photographic assignments. After relocating to London in 2000 he began working for Magnum Photos as the Production Manager. During this time he was involved in the setting up of Magnum and HP’s creative partnership, printed numerous international exhibitions, and worked closely with Magnum photographers on the production of their projects.
Leaving Magnum in 2006 to pursue photography full-time, he has since worked for clients such as The Gap, Grazia, TimeOut, Tank and The Drawbridge. In 2005 Axelbank’s work was selected for the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Award exhibited at National Gallery, London. In 2009, his Flora series was shortlisted for the Descubrimientos PHE Madrid (Discovery Award) at PhotoEspaña and included in the Creative Review Photography Annual 2009. He teaches photography at Photofusion in Brixton, is a Lecturer in Photography at the University of Hertfordshire, and a visiting lecturer at Anglia Ruskin.
About the series, ‘Flora’
“This project originated from my interest in applying a documentary approach to floral photography. I have produced these pictures as I do street portraits. I choose plants, like people, because they grab my attention: for the combination of height, posture, colour and form. I find them en route to somewhere, in peoples’ gardens, or in municipal planting schemes. Sometimes I go on the hunt, stealing a picture over a back fence or in an allotment.
My approach is guerrilla-style – photographing quickly with a medium format rangefinder and a simple flash technique. Richly coloured and elaborately textured, the resulting pictures are hugely seductive. The flower forms emerge out of the dark, their distinct personalities condensed against the black background. Simple and raw in their presentation, these compositions nevertheless maintain a formality typical in floral photography, their night time setting serving to heighten their sensual beauty and the sensory experience for the viewer.”
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